Electronic Program Guides (EPG) provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying scheduling information for current and upcoming programming.
Non-interactive electronic program guides are typically available for television and radio, and can be provided on a dedicated channel as a digitally-displayed non-interactive menu of program scheduling information from a cable or satellite television provider to its viewers. EPGs are broadcast by specialized video generation equipment housed within each provider's central television distribution facility. By tuning a receiver to a dedicated EPG channel, a menu is displayed that lists current and upcoming programs on all available channels.
A more modern form of the EPG, associated with both television and radio broadcasting, is the interactive (electronic) program guide. An interactive EPG allows television viewers and radio listeners to navigate scheduling information menus interactively, selecting and discovering programming by time, title, channel, or genre using an input device such as a keypad, computer keyboard, or television remote control. Its interactive menus are generated entirely within local broadcast signal receiver or display equipment using raw scheduling data sent by individual broadcast stations or centralized scheduling information providers. FIG. 1 is a screen shot of an example conventional interactive EPG that can be displayed on a television.
Some television remote controls include a touch screen interface, which is an electronic visual display device that can detect the presence and location of a touch selection within the display area. Touch screen interfaces are generally configured to receive touch input via a user's finger or hand, although they can be configured to sense other objects, such as a stylus. Some display interfaces can sense objects that are adjacent to, but not touching the interface, such as by sensing light from a light pen and/or sensing light that is reflected off of an adjacent object that is being manipulated by a user.
Because of the increasing number of channels provided by broadcast providers, viewers sometimes must page through a large number of pages of programming information provided by interactive EPGs to discover a particular program or a possibly interesting program. Although touch screen interfaces and other advances for remote controls may enable easier paging through interactive EPG programming information pages, accessing programming information in this manner may not be considered an adequate solution by many viewers.